


i feel something (when i see you now)

by glowgal



Series: ninety-nine percent fresh [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hollywood, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Azula & Zuko (Avatar) Have a Good Relationship, Azula is a Good Sister, F/M, Minor Sokka/Suki, he is also so into katara, who is a movie star and an all around cutie pie, zuko is a theatre kid this is canon fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27261997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowgal/pseuds/glowgal
Summary: Zuko hasn’t thought about high school in years. Of course he thinks about Katara from time to time - a man never forgets his first unrequited crush. But she's nothing more than a fond memory, a relic from simpler times.Then Katara gets cast in a fuckingBlue Spiritmovie.And yeah, Zuko’s thinking about high school again.orKatara is famous and it's just a lot for Zuko to deal with. Then he bumps into her in a Rite-Aid.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: ninety-nine percent fresh [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001286
Comments: 62
Kudos: 342





	i feel something (when i see you now)

**Author's Note:**

> y'all i have no idea what this is. like. really. but it was fun to write!  
> title is from "ICU" by the queen phoebe bridgers

Zuko hasn’t thought about high school— _really_ thought about it—in years.

Sure, he occasionally looks back on some of his old high school adventures with fondness—that time he and Aang got high for the first time behind the Jasmine Dragon; when he took Mai to prom and they crashed Chan and Ruon Jon's afterparty; and of course, all of the crazy shit he got up to with Azula and Ty Lee. But Zuko makes a point not to dwell on the past - why waste time thinking about what has already happened when you can live in the here and now? The people, places and things that made up his formative years still mean something to him, but they certainly don’t live at the forefront of his mind.

But he’s sitting in Starbucks one day, sipping his caramel macchiato (they’re _good_ , okay?) and tapping out a rhythm with his pen on the desk, and suddenly he’s got a text from his sister saying _Just got an alumni email from Kyoshi Prep. Your annoying friend in my year, the scholarship girl? She’s in the new Blue Spirit movie. How odd, I didn’t realize blockbuster films were casting out of desperation._

Zuko chokes on his coffee.

Saying he and Katara Tunnuq are _friends_ is pretty generous. She was a grade below him at Kyoshi Prep - funny, kind of a dork, and pretty in a naïve sort of way, with a loud and infectious laugh. Ty Lee (literally) strong-armed Zuko into doing the musical with her their senior year, and Katara was the dance captain. Something about seeing her float across the stage in a leotard every day for 3 months really left an impression on Zuko’s hormonal teenage brain, and he developed a totally unexpected but pretty brutal crush on her.

Aang and Katara would often spend time with him and Ty Lee after rehearsal, and Zuko found that, shockingly, he had a knack for making Katara laugh. But she seemed completely oblivious to his more overt flirtations, and after a while Zuko just kind of gave up – Azula did not approve of Zuko crushing on a lowly scholarship student, and Mai was pretty persistent about trying to sleep with him at that point.

The most that came out of it was that Zuko maybe got a little too drunk at his graduation party and tried to FaceTime Katara, but of course Mai and Ty Lee stopped him. And he’s glad they did - nothing good ever happens when Zuko talks to his crushes drunk - but he never spoke to Katara again. Of course, he thinks about her from time to time - a man never forgets his first unrequited crush. But she's been nothing more than a fond memory to him, a relic from simpler times.

And now she's in a fucking _Blue Spirit movie_.

So yeah, Zuko’s thinking about high school again.

…

“Hey, do you remember Katara Tunnuq?” Zuko calls from the couch into the kitchen, where Ty Lee is making dinner, because apparently part of growing up means her learning to cook. Which is weird for Zuko, because he can still remember when Azula would pay Ty Lee to eat wood chips on the playground in 2nd grade, but. Whatever.

“Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about her!” Ty Lee laughs. “She had the prettiest purple-y blue aura. Why do you ask?”

Zuko turns around, looking over the back of the couch to where Ty Lee is chopping carrots for the soup. “You haven’t heard? I got like a million texts from old high school people about her today.”

(This was only partially an exaggeration. It seemed like half of Kyoshi Class of ’17 was buzzing about the fact that they’d all gone to school with someone tangentially famous - never mind the fact Zuko was sure most of them had never spoken to Katara a day in their lives. Azula in particular seemed very irked about this sudden turn of events, and so naturally was spamming him with updates on all of Katara's media appearances.)

Ty Lee looks alarmed. “Did she _die_?”

“No,” Zuko snorts. “She’s in the new _Blue Spirit_ movie.”

Ty Lee actually drops the knife she’s holding. “You’re joking.”

Zuko shakes his head, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. “ _Nope._ ”

“Have you – _wow!_ Zuko! How did you even find out? How did I not know this?” Ty Lee asks, practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

“The new movie was just announced, I guess, and there was a whole profile about her in Vogue Caldera that Azula keeps texting me snarky commentary about.” Zuko says, pulling up the article on his phone to show his roommate the photo from the profile, a close-up shot of Katara gazing intensely at the camera.

She’s grown out of her naïve prettiness and is now a full-blown knockout, with her dark curls cut in a short bob and her blue eyes piercing the camera. Zuko may or may not have saved the picture to his phone.

Ty Lee grabs the phone from his hand and peers at the picture, looking shell-shocked. “She’s so _pretty_! Should we try to contact her? I wanna say congrats!”

Zuko wrinkles his nose. The idea of talking to Katara after all these years gives him an anxious feeling he's unwilling to examine further. “Bad idea. We haven’t spoken for years, if we contact her now, she’ll think that we’re just talking to her because she’s all famous now.”

Ty Lee looks confused. “But… that’s why we’d be talking to her.”

“Yeah, but that’s a dick move.” Zuko insists. “Besides, she’s probably got a million people trying to contact her again. She’s probably freaking out right now.”

Ty Lee looks contemplative. “What if we didn’t try to contact her directly?”

…

**at 08:07 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

hey man

how’s it going? it’s been forever since we’ve talked

**at 08:23 pm, Aang Gyatso wrote:**

Hey Zuko!!

Yeah, it’s definitely been a while!

Are you texting to ask about Katara?

**at 08:24 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

wow that obvious huh

**at 08:26 pm, Aang Gyatso wrote:**

Yeah haha, I’ve gotten like 100 texts in the past day or so about her!

I think everyone kind of assumes we’re still in touch.

**at 08:27 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

you guys aren’t still friends?

did something happen?

**at 08:28 pm, Aang Gyatso wrote:**

Oh, I mean we’re friends!

But we don’t talk a lot anymore, she’s super busy with everything.

I did text her congratulations though, when I found out.

**at 08:28 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

she didn’t tell you about the movie?

**at 08:30 pm, Aang Gyatso wrote:**

Like I said, we’re not that close anymore.

**at 08:32 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

that sucks man, i’m sorry to hear that.

**at 08:43 pm, Aang Gyatso wrote:**

Did you have a message you wanted me to pass along to her or something?

**at 08:44 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

nah never mind, it’s cool

i’m sure she’s got a lot on her plate

take care man, hope things are going well for you

**at 08:46 pm, Aang Gyatso wrote:**

You too, Zuko

…

“Well, that answers our question if they’re dating now,” Ty Lee says with a grimace when Zuko shows her the conversation. “Poor guy.”

Zuko shrugs, feeling slightly guilty – he shouldn’t be pleased that Aang and Katara were no longer in touch, but he kind of is. Despite being two years younger, Aang was one of Zuko’s closest friends during his senior year of high school. But nothing could compare to Aang’s friendship with Katara - the two were pretty much inseparable, and Aang was very obviously in love with her. Zuko always sort of dreaded the inevitability that the two of them would end up together – Aang was incredibly talented, super smart, and beloved by all, and Katara seemed to care about him a lot – but clearly, they never worked it out.

“Well, guess we’re not special,” Zuko says, reaching over the kitchen counter to steal a slice of carrot from Ty Lee’s cutting board. “We’ll just have to wait and see what Katara’s up to like the rest of the world.”

…

The first trailer comes out a few months later. It’s short, only 30 seconds long, and it’s mostly a lot of action shots and close ups of the Blue Spirit’s mask, but there’s a 2-second shot of Katara about halfway through the video, and Zuko breathes in so sharply and so loudly that the girl in the study cubicle next to him gives him a dirty look. Zuko doesn’t give a fuck.

He rewinds to the exact moment Katara is on the screen and pauses it, staring with a mixture of awe, jealousy, and a strange sort of pride at his high school crush. Her dark hair is hidden under a wide-brimmed hat, and her face is covered in swirling lines of red paint. She’s cloaked in mist, and her eyes are closed, her face serene.

Zuko watches the trailer 6 more times, pausing every time on Katara’s face.

…

It’s the Solstice, and Katara Tunnuq is fucking everywhere.

Zuko’s home from grad school for the holidays, and it’s like no matter where he goes, he’s running into someone from high school who wants to talk about Katara (“Did you know her at all? Were you guys friends?”) or coming across clips of the movie online (Katara’s playing a character known as The Painted Lady, apparently, and she looks ethereal in every frame). And it’s just incredibly surreal, that Zuko knows a girl who’s suddenly a part of one of the most successful, most legendary franchises of all time. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do with himself once the press junket starts after the Winter Solstice holidays - it’s one things to see Katara’s face spread all over the media, but to actually hear the girl he pined after for a solid year speak on national television about being in a motherfucking _Blue Spirit_ movie? Just thinking about it blows Zuko’s mind. He hasn’t heard her low, velvety voice in years, and the next time he’ll hear her speak will be when she’s on _Late Night with Bumi_ or something.

Or so he thinks, until he runs into her at fucking _Rite-Aid._

He’s there picking up stuff for his family - tampons and chocolate for Azula, who’s on her period and can only be appeased by Lindt truffles, and some kind of treat for Iroh, just because it’s the holiday of giving or whatever, plus he’d feel bad getting stuff for his sister and not for his uncle. He’s trying to remember if Iroh likes fireflakes or fire gummies best when an all-too familiar voice exclaims, “Oh my god, Zuko Himura?”

Zuko swivels and locks eyes with none other than Katara fucking Tunnuq, who’s standing at the end of the aisle with an honest-to-god baby in her arms and a shy smile on her face, and he legitimately cannot form words.

“Oh, um… I don’t know if you remember me,” Katara continues, as if Zuko wouldn’t know who she was even if they hadn’t been in a fucking _musical_ together in high school, “But I was in the grade below you at Kyoshi Prep? We did—“

“I know who you are,” Zuko interrupts, immediately wincing at his bluntness. “Sorry. That was really rude. Of course I remember you. We were in a terrible cheesy musical together. Wow. Hi, Katara. What are you doing back in Kyoshi?”

Katara beams, and Zuko feels like he’s been hit by a truck _twice_. Her hair is just past her shoulders now, a sort of halfway mix between her long curls and the short bob she sported in her Vogue photoshoot, and her eyes are just as big and blue as he remembers. She’s fucking _stunning._ “Hi, Zuko.” she laughs. “And, um.. my family lives here? I’m here for the Solstice, same as you. I assume.”

“Right, obviously,” Zuko says, shaking his head. “It’s really good to see you, Katara.”

“You too!” Katara laughs. “I can’t believe we’re meeting for the first time in half a decade in a Rite-Aid.”

Zuko nods like an idiot. “Yeah, of all the places. Uh… what brings you to this pharmacy?”

He internally winces. _What brings you to this pharmacy?_ Agni above, he thought he had more game than this.

But Katara’s smile doesn’t falter a bit at his clumsy flirting. “I’m here for diapers for this guy right here,” she says, turning to make an adoring face at the sleepy child in her arms, “and some snacks for my brother, because he has a bit of a fireflakes problem.”

Zuko chuckles nervously as the reality that the girl he’s currently flirting with has an actual child in her arms sinks in. “Yeah, um, how old is he? Congratulations, by the way, I had no idea–”

“ _Oh_ , no no no no,” Katara interrupts, eyes wide. “Kallik’s not mine, he’s Sokka’s – you remember my brother, right? I’m just playing fun auntie while he and his wife have a date night.”

Relief floods over Zuko as he laughs, nodding. “Yeah, I was wondering when you had time to, um, you know, have a baby, what with all the–” he trails off, uncertain if _The Blue Spirit_ is a topic she’s willing to discuss. “You know. Stuff you’re up to.”

Katara blushes, smiling softly, and yep, Zuko is thoroughly fucked. “Yeah, babies are definitely not a part of the game plan for a while. Turns out getting a job really fills up your schedule, who would have thought?”

“Who indeed,” Zuko replies, a slow smile working its way over his features. He’s about to say something else—like “how long are you staying in town?” or “do you want to make out in the back of my car in this Rite-Aid parking lot?”—when suddenly little Kallik begins to fuss.

“I know, lovey, I know,” Katara coos, bouncing the baby boy up and down in her arms as Zuko’s heart just about bursts. “It’s about dinner time for you, huh?”

She turns to Zuko. “I’ve gotta get this one back home, but, uh, do you mind if I text you or something? I’d love to actually catch up. Maybe we could get coffee or something, if that’s not weird?”

 _This has to be a fever dream,_ Zuko thinks, as he tries to play it cool – “Not weird at all. My number hasn’t changed since high school. If you still have it.”

“I think I do!” Katara replies, looking adorably pleased. “Okay, great. I’ll talk to you later, then."

“Good to see you,” Zuko calls after her, hoping the smile on his face isn’t too goofy as he waves goodbye.

And as she walks to the register, chatting quietly to the baby in her arms, Zuko pinches himself so hard it bruises.

…

**at 10:03 pm, Katara Tunnuq wrote:**

hey, happy solstice!

sorry i didn’t text for a couple days, family time is always really crazy in the tunnuq household

hope your day was filled with less political arguments and passive aggressive comments about your career choice than mine

**at 10:06 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

i refuse to believe that your family members don’t like you being in a fucking blue spirit movie

everyone loves the blue spirit! that franchise is like the glue that holds my extremely fragile family together!

oh and happy solstice

**at 10:07 pm, Katara Tunnuq wrote:**

well my step-grandpa believes that women shouldn’t be allowed to act in roles that require them to be, you know, assertive. so he HATES that i’m playing a superhero

jokes on him though bc she’s actually a superVILLAIN

wait please forget i said that, that’s like a major spoiler for the entire movie

oh my god

**at 10:08 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

too late, i already sent a screenshot of this convo to ALL the news outlets

(kidding. thanks for spoiling the movie for me though, jeez)

**at 10:10 pm, Katara Tunnuq wrote:**

wow i hope you were rewarded handsomely for that information

how are azula and your uncle, by the way?

**at 10:11 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

this conversation is all the reward i need

and they’re good. holidays are really busy at the tea shop, so uncle likes having us home to help him out

how’s sokka? i completely forgot to ask earlier, it’s crazy that he has a kid now

**at 10:13 pm, Katara Tunnuq wrote:**

you slick fuck!!

and sokka is good. SOOO married. like he’s rly one of those “i love my wife” guys. but his wife suki is so fucking cool so i don’t blame him

i actually missed kallik’s birth because of filming which was really shitty and sad so it’s been so special to meet him

i’m sorry i probably seem like such an asshole rn complaining about my job, i’ll stop talking about it

**at 10:16 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

you don't seem like an asshole at all.

not being there must have been rough for your whole family, the fact that you have the world’s coolest job doesn’t take away from that

to be honest i’m shocked you don’t talk about your work MORE. if i were in a blue spirit movie i would be so fucking annoying about it

i would tattoo it on my forehead probably

**at 10:17 pm, Katara Tunnuq wrote:**

i actually considered getting a tattoo of his mask after i got the part

but then i figured that would be a tiny bit obnoxious

**at 10:19 pm, Zuko Himura wrote:**

it 100% wouldn’t

i’ve been really wanting a tattoo lately

not a blue spirit one, necessarily

but if you ever wanted company getting your tattoo

i’ve been told i’m great for emotional support

**at 10:23 pm, Katara Tunnuq wrote:**

wait call me

…

Katara’s voice is bright, breathless over the phone. “Do you actually want to go get tattoos together? Like, this weekend?”

Zuko feels lightheaded with excitement and wanting. He’s never felt this way before, not with Mai, not with his regular college hookup Jet, not even with Jin, the only serious girlfriend he’s ever had. It’s not even that she’s famous - it’s that she’s _Katara._ Smart, hilarious, beautiful Katara. “Name a time and place.”

Katara laughs, and it sounds like music to Zuko’s ears. “Oh, we are _so_ doing this.”

…

Azula shoves her phone in Zuko’s face. “What in Agni’s name is this?”

Zuko blinks, leaning back so he can see the screen Azula’s so courteously placed inches from his nose. It’s an article in what looks like Ba Sing Se Today – _Hometown Hunk or Tatted Troublemaker?_ The Blue Spirit _’s Katara Tunnuq spotted leaving tattoo parlor in her hometown of Kyoshi with son of disgraced politician Ozai Himura._

“You didn’t tell me you and the scholarship girl were hanging out,” Azula says, sounding very peeved indeed. “Are you two _dating_?”

Zuko blinks at the phone in his hand, stunned. Unsure how to even answer his sister’s question, he does what he’s best at when it comes to Azula: deflecting. “Zula, she’s literally a movie star. Calling her ‘the scholarship girl’ doesn’t assert your dominance over her like you think it does.”

Azula scoffs. “My dominance doesn’t need to be asserted; it simply _is_. Answer the question.”

“What, are Katara and I dating? It’s complicated, Zula.” Zuko admits. And it’s the truth.

Their trip to the tattoo parlor was incredible – perfect, even. From the moment Katara met him outside the Freedom Fighters Tattoo Parlor, that stunning, joyful smile was on her face. “Come on, let’s go piss off our families!” she crowed, squeezing his arm and dragging him into the parlor.

Instead of getting the Blue Spirit’s mask tattooed, Katara decided on a stylized design of the Painted Lady’s face, her lips and swirling face paint peeking out from under the brim of her veiled hat.

“It’s from the character’s concept art,” she whispered to Zuko excitedly as the tattoo artist – a woman with a mass of bushy brown hair named Smellerbee – examined the drawing.

She decided to get it tattooed on her ribcage, just underneath her bra strap – so of course Zuko had to purposefully keep his eyes looking anywhere but the tantalizing stretch of creamy brown skin where Smellerbee was placing the design.

“Hold my hand?” Katara murmured before the actual tattooing started, looking up at him with those impossibly blue eyes.

Zuko was an absolute goner after that.

He sat with Katara’s hand enveloped in his for the entire time it took to get her design inked, talking to her about anything and everything to keep her mind off the pain of the needle. Katara told him that she’d gone to The University of the North for two years before dropping out to pursue acting, and how she was randomly assigned to room with her brother’s high school girlfriend, Yue. Zuko told her about how he and Ty Lee both ended up attending Omashu University, and how they became practically inseparable after they realized they’d both hooked up with Mai on prom night their senior year. Katara beamed while telling him the story of how Sokka proposed to Suki (“he didn’t even use a boomerang, I was so proud”) and they couldn’t stop laughing when Zuko told her about the time Azula got drunk before her high school graduation and tried to cut her own bangs. By the time it was Zuko’s turn to get his tattoo, Zuko’s cheeks hurt from smiling.

And of course, when Katara sweetly offered to return the favor by holding his hand as Smellerbee tattooed “Never give up without a fight” on Zuko’s forearm, he couldn’t say no.

After their tattoos were finished and paid for, the pair stepped out of the parlor and into the frigid evening air. Zuko felt incredibly conflicted – should he invite her to dinner? Ask her out, officially? Would it be creepy of him to admit that he wanted nothing more than to make this perfect day last?

Katara solved his dilemma fairly quickly. “I should head back,” she said, voice tinged with regret. “My dad and brother have no idea what I’m up to right now, so I better head home before they start wondering where I went.”

Zuko nodded, nudging her shoulder with his. “Thanks for letting me come get a tattoo with you.”

Katara grinned. “Are you kidding? I should be thanking _you_. I would have never done this if you hadn’t come with me.”

She reached out, pulling Zuko into a lingering hug. A few long, wonderful moments and a “see you soon” later, the two of them went their separate ways.

And now, just a day later, pictures of their hug have been plastered across one of the most notorious tabloids in the Four Nations, implying that Zuko is some kind of bad boy – another version of his father, set out to break Katara’s heart. “She’s never going to want to see me again,” Zuko groans, dropping his head into his hands.

Suddenly, Iroh comes bustling into the room, waving a paper copy of Ba Sing Se Today – of course his uncle gets tabloids in the mail – and beaming like he’d just won the lottery. “Zuko! You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend! And an accomplished young woman like Katara? You must bring her over for tea!”

Azula snorts. “Haven’t you heard, Uncle? It’s _complicated_.”

…

Two days later, and Zuko still hasn’t heard a thing from Katara.

He texted her the morning Azula showed him the article in Ba Sing Se Today - a brief message offering to chat if she ever needed anything - but there was no response, and Zuko’s going kind of crazy.

He _misses_ Katara – it’s kind of ridiculous, honestly, how deeply he feels her absence from his life. They hung out _once_ , for Agni’s sake. But Zuko can’t stop thinking about her.

“Hello, earth to Zuzu.”

Zuko’s head snaps up to see his little sister leaning against the doorframe of his childhood bedroom. Azula lets out a sharp laugh.

“Look at your face! You look like a lovesick hippo-cow. You’re mooning over little miss movie star, aren’t you?”

Zuko huffs, flopping back on his bed to stare at the ceiling. “Her name is _Katara_.”

The bed shifts as Azula takes a seat next to him. “You know, she probably has a reason for not calling you.”

“Besides her being completely uninterested in seeing me ever again?” Zuko mumbles.

“Yes, dumdum, besides that. I mean, think about it. _She_ knows that we haven’t seen or had contact with Ozai since you were twelve, but the rest of the world doesn’t. They don’t care that Ozai’s locked up for life because of what he did to you, they care that he’s in prison and that you’re his kid. She’s probably dealing with publicists and managers and film producers to try to smooth all this over.”

Zuko groans, rolling onto his stomach and pressing his face into the comforter. “That makes me feel _worse_ , Azula. I shouldn’t have brought her into this.”

Azula scoffs. “Brought her into what? Zuko, you’ve been removed from the situation for _years_. You’ve gone to therapy, made peace with what happened, and moved on. If Katara is going to let whatever it is you have get ruined by something that our father did to you when you were twelve, then she’s even more of a backwards idiot than I initially thought.”

Zuko rolls over to eye his sister, who’s very pointedly staring at her painted fingernails instead of at him. “You’re kind of nice sometimes, do you know that?”

“I’m always nice,” Azula sniffs haughtily. “Just not necessarily to you.”

Zuko laughs.

…

_Hey Zuko, it’s Katara._

_I mean, you definitely know that. You have caller ID._

_But, um, I was just calling to say hi, and to say I’m so, so sorry for not talking to you these past few days._

_Are you still in Kyoshi? Maybe we could finally get that coffee. Or, I don’t know, meet up at Unagi Lake and take a walk or something? I just – I’d love to see you again. And I want to explain why I’ve been so, you know, absent._

_So. Call me!_

_Or text me._

_Whichever._

_Um. Okay! Bye!_

…

The second Zuko sees Katara, he knows what’s coming.

She looks positively lovely, standing at the end of the Unagi Lake pier, wrapped up in a cobalt scarf that stands out beautifully against her brown skin. Her hands are tucked into her jacket pockets, and she’s looking around anxiously, rocking up and down on the balls of her feet. She’s clearly nervous to see him, and Zuko realizes with a horrible sinking feeling that Katara is going to tell him they can’t see each other again.

He takes a deep breath as he heads toward her down the pier, his eyes fixed on his shoes. He should have seen this coming, honestly – who was Zuko to think that he was in any way worthy of someone as incredible as Katara Tunnuq, really? He understands, of course, that this would never work, and so they’ll just go back to being strangers, and–

“Zuko!”

And he looks up to see the blur of a blue scarf and dark hair flying down the pier as Katara rushes to meet him.

“Hi,” she breathes. Her smile is radiant, her cheeks and nose flushed with cold, and she’s breathless from running.

Zuko can hardly breathe either and he’s barely moved. “Hi Katara,” he says, suddenly unsure. If she was going to reject him, why would she be looking at him like _this_ – like he’s the best thing she’s ever seen, like he made her incandescently happy just by showing up?

“I have to tell you,” Katara blurts, staring earnestly into his eyes, “that I’m so sorry I didn’t text you back after the tabloids came out. You just have no idea how guilty I felt – I can’t believe I was so careless to drag you and your family into the spotlight, as if you haven’t been through enough already – and I just couldn’t face you, I was sure that you hated me, and I was dealing with so much bullshit from my publicist and my agent, and they kept pressuring me into releasing a statement saying we weren’t together, but I didn’t _want to_ , Zuko, I didn’t want to say that we’re not together because I’ve had feelings for you since fucking high school and _really_ want to be with you.”

But before Zuko can sweep Katara up in his arms, before he can tell her that _of course_ he wants to be with her too, Katara barrels on: “I understand though, if you hate me now and you never want to see me again, but I just had to tell you how I felt–”

“Katara,” Zuko interrupts, stepping in close so that Katara’s gazing up at him, her eyes wide and lips parted in a silent “oh”, and Agni, he likes her so much it _aches_ , “Can I _please_ kiss you?”

She does him one better and kisses him first.

And it is even better than Zuko could have ever imagined, the feeling of Katara’s body pressed against him, her lips warm and insistent on his. He reaches to cup her jaw with one hand, gently stroking his thumb over her cheek as they kiss, so slow and tender it’s devastating, and when they break apart to breathe Katara gives a heady gasp that Zuko feels in his bones.

“I’ve had feelings for you since high school too, for what it’s worth,” Zuko rasps quietly, still cradling her cheek, his forehead pressed to hers. He can’t let her go just yet, not now that he’s found her again.

Katara closes her eyes, stretches up to graze her lips against his again with a blissful sigh. “I was really, really hoping.”

…

Pictures of Zuko and Katara kissing on the pier surface online three days later.

Iroh prints them out and tapes them to his fridge.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm fully aware i have a completely different WIP that i haven't touched in over a month but i recently got cheated on by my (now ex) boyfriend and this is the first thing i've been motivated to write since. i've never written a oneshot like this before and it was so much easier than the whole multi-chapter thing?? 
> 
> anyway i know this story is kind of all over the place but i hope you enjoyed!!!!! comments/kudos are always always appreciated, would love to know what you think of all the weird details i threw in there (my personal fav is ty lee eating wood chips for money idk that just made me cackle)


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